Disclaimer:
All characters are the intellectual property of the author. This is
a work of fiction, any resemblance to real people or places is purely
coincidental. Sexual acts between consenting teens and adults, both
heterosexual and homosexual, are depicted.

Chapter 1

The alarm was blaring at me. I
looked blearily at the clock in the dark, its red letters flashing
4:30 am. I groaned and turned it off. I briefly considered blowing
off tryouts today, but then brushed the idea aside. I was determined
that high school was going to be different, and the first step in
making that happen was to get on the cross country and soccer teams.

In grade school I'd been the butt
of every joke. I was the shortest kid in the class, played piano and
viola, read more books in a week than most of my classmates read in a
year, and I was into running and soccer instead of the all-important
sport of football. All were cardinal sins in my former classmates'
eyes, and grounds for getting beaten up by the football jocks. The
more they taunted and bullied, the more I retreated into books, music
and running. They were my escape.

But I was determined that high
school was going to be a different story entirely. I had shot up more
than six inches in the last year, so I was at long last not the
shortest kid in sight.

Try-outs for the cross-country team
were this morning and soccer was this afternoon. I was hell-bent on
making both teams. After running ten miles a day all summer, my times
were pretty good. Even my father seemed happy with them. Running was
the one and only thing he and I had in common. He had actually gone
to college on a track scholarship before the draft had taken him out
of college and to Vietnam. Considering that nothing I had ever done
had seemed to meet with his approval before now, I was feeling pretty
confident.

I slid out of bed, shivering as the
cold air hit my body. It was a balmy August morning outside, but my
mother kept the house in the 50's all year. She didn't cope well with
heat. It made her tired. I dashed into the kitchen and dumped a roast
and fixings into the crock-pot to cook during the day. The only way
I'd been able to get my mother to agree to me trying out for the
teams was if I agreed to keep up with the house work, no matter what
my practice schedule was. My mother wasn't thrilled with the idea of
me being out of the house any more than absolutely necessary.

I took a quick shower, threw on
running clothes and grabbed the gym bag I'd set out the night before.
My mother was blocking the front door with her wheelchair when I
entered the living room. The look on her face made it clear just how
little she liked the idea of me joining the team.

“You're not leaving this
house until dinner is started young man,” she snarled.

“It's already in the crock
pot cooking, mom. I should be back before it's done, but if I'm not
all you have to do is scoop it out.” I was trying not to sound
annoyed. If she heard even a hint of defiance in my voice, I'd never
make it out the door. “Mom, I've really got to get going or
I'll miss the bus. Dad will be mad if I don't make it to try-outs.”

I was fervently hoping that her
fear of my father's reaction if she was the reason I didn't make the
team would overwhelm her own desire to screw this up for me. It
seemed to be working. She moved away from the door - and deliberately
ran over my foot.

“Come right home after those
damn try-outs. I'll be calling the coach to make sure you come home
on time,” she said without looking at me.

I ran out the door and jogged the
mile to the city bus stop. My foot was killing me, but I was
determined to ignore it. The bus pulled up just as I arrived and I
hopped on. I found a seat in the back and settled back to read for
the forty-five minute ride into the city. I changed buses downtown
and rode the short distance from the city center to St. Mary's
Catholic High School.

I tried to calm my nerves as I
walked around the main school building. It had been built nearly a
hundred years ago and looked more like a mental hospital than a high
school. The building was tall and grey with narrow windows. It
wouldn't have looked out of place to see bars on them. The place
seemed alive in the way some old buildings do – as if they are
watching you. Okay, so maybe I was feeling a bit paranoid.

I was coming to high school from a
minuscule little Catholic grade school in the middle of nowhere.
There had been fewer than 200 kids in grades K-8. St. Mary's, the
nearest Catholic high school, may as well have been on another
planet. There were as many people in my freshman class as there had
been in my entire school, and it was squarely in the middle of the
“big city”. Though not a huge school, it was massive
compared to what I was used to. I was hoping that in that mass of new
people I'd be able to find some friends. I knew I didn't want
anything to do with the people I'd known before.

I found the group of people who
were there to try out for cross-country on the grassy field between
the main building and the gym. I signed up, and started to stretch.
The head coach called everyone over to describe the try-outs. Coach
Spitzer, it turned out, was also one of the science teachers. I
concluded quickly that the coach was a total nut, but in a nice way.
He was what you'd get if you crossed Yosemite Sam from the old Bugs
Bunny cartoons with Grover from Sesame Street. If the thought makes
your head hurt, you have the right idea. I liked him immediately. He
outlined an eight mile circuit for us to run and explained that we'd
each be timed. Our times that day would determine if we made the team
and if we were going to be junior varsity or varsity. He said that
the list would go up right after lunch.

We started our run at seven am
sharp. I found myself in the front pack of guys. We were running
pretty fast, but I wasn't struggling. I stayed with them the entire
run and managed to finish in the top ten. I was pretty sure I'd done
well enough to make the team, but was still nervous. I did some
stretches to cool down and watched the rest of the runners finish up.
There were at least fifty people here for the try-outs, and I was
surprised that the number was that high. I'd heard that cross-country
and track were a pretty big deal here, but it seemed hard to believe
after the scorn they had garnered at my last school.

I found a quiet shady corner to eat
my lunch and read while I waited for the locker room to clear out,
then ducked in to get a quick shower and change into my soccer
clothes. The lists were up by the time I emerged from the locker
room, one each for JV and varsity. There were small groups of people
huddled around the each. Some were looking elated and some crushed.
My stomach clenched as I walked over to look at the JV list. I wanted
this so much. I read the list. I wasn't on it. It felt like someone
had hit me in the gut. I just stood there reading it over and over
again, hoping my name would magically appear on it. I didn't even
notice Coach Spitzer standing next to me.

“So what size should we order
your uniform in?” His voice startled me, and I jumped half out
of my skin.

“Um, sir, I'm not on the
list,” I said.

“Not the JV list. You're over
there,” he said pointing at the varsity list. “Wait a
minute, you didn't check that one did you.”

I shook my head and he just burst
out laughing. “I was trying to figure out why you looked like
someone just ate your puppy.” he said between cackles. I was
still having a hard time reconciling the Grover voice with the 6'7”
tall skinny guy who had Yosemite Sam's face, let alone grasp the fact
that I had made the varsity team. He took another look at my face and
laughed even harder. “Oh, I'm gonna have fun with you. See you
at practice tomorrow, kiddo. Be there at eight am sharp!”

Coach Spitzer walked away cackling
like a mad man. I blinked after him then finally shook myself out of
it and went to look at the varsity list. Part of me was convinced
that he must have been joking. He wasn't. Sam Passerello was there,
halfway down the page on the left. I'm not sure how long I stood
there staring dumbly at the page, but when I finally returned to
reality I realized that I'd better get my butt to the soccer field if
I wanted to make those try-outs.

I honestly can't remember anything
from soccer try-outs; I was so stunned by making the varsity
cross-country team that I just sort of floated through. Apparently I
did a reasonable job, though, because at the end of try-outs when the
coaches announced the freshman team I was on it.

Practices started that week.
Cross-country every morning and soccer every afternoon. There wasn't
much time to talk to anyone during practice, but everyone seemed
nice. I figured we'd end up getting to know each other when we bussed
to and from games and meets. A month later when school started I was
feeling pretty good about the prospects for high school.

* * * * * * * *

The first day of school I made a
quick dash to my locker just as the first bell rang and, after
wrangling the lock for a bit, finally got it open and grabbed the
books I'd stashed there during orientation. I raced upstairs to my
home room on the fourth floor. When I got there, I sat at an empty
desk and scanned the room looking for a familiar face - no one I knew
was there. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around again.
Apparently, I was the only guy in this part of the alphabet. But hey,
at least some of the girls were hot. The typical first day of school
announcements and roll call went quickly. The teacher looked as if
he'd just walked out of a football ad, but he seemed nice. Fifteen
minutes later home room was over. The bell rang and I was off to my
first real class.

The classroom was on the top floor
of the school, which was two stories above my home room. I thought it
would be easy to find, but I quickly discovered the building had been
remodeled by a truly sick mind. Tell me: who in the hell builds
stairwells that lead to blank walls, turns hallways into classrooms
and doesn't number the rooms consecutively? Just what I needed, to be
late for my first real class. Seconds before the bell rang I finally
found the room and raced in. Everyone turned to look at me. I could
feel my face flushing as I looked at a room full of ten jocks and two
girls. Great- just great.

I looked around for an empty spot.
The room had several long tables with chairs pulled up to them. There
was only one seat left. It was next to the biggest guy in the room -
obviously a football player. He gave me a lopsided grin as I walked
over. I found myself staring dumbly into piercing blue eyes.

“You get lost too? It took me
forever to find this damn room.” I nodded at him and managed to
tear my eyes away long enough to slide into the seat. “My
name's Brian.”

“Uh, I'm Sam.”

“Nice to meet you, Sam I am.
So, do you like green eggs and ham?” He gave me that lopsided
grin again, and I couldn't help but smile back. I felt myself
relaxing just a bit.

“Why, is that what they're
serving for lunch today?”

“Probably worse, at least
according to my siblings.”

“You have sibs going here?”

“Yep. There's ten of us all
together. I'm the youngest. My sister Mary is a junior. Everyone else
has graduated, but they all swear that the lunch ladies are trying to
kill off the students.”

“Ten?!” The thought of
that many brothers and sisters just blew my mind.

“Yep.” He grinned
again. “I even like 'em all most of the time. How about you?”

“I'm it.”

“So my first high school
friend is a one-of-a-kind? Cool!”

I couldn't help smiling at him
again. I was beginning to think that I could really learn to like
this guy when the teacher walked in and started class. As she called
roll, I took some time to study Brian. He was a mess; his school
uniform was one giant wrinkle, his dishwater blonde hair was standing
up in all directions and his tie was crooked. He clearly had a great
body that screamed “I play football!” He was confident,
but not in the cocky way that some jocks can be. He just seemed
totally comfortable with who he was. Maybe it was the goofy grin he
seemed to always be wearing. It was tempting to think of him as a
“dumb jock”, but there seemed to be more going on in his
head than that when I looked in his eyes.

The teacher, Sister Theresa, was a
tiny woman. The mounds of fabric from her habit looked like they were
about to swallow her. The squeaky voice emanating from the cloth
began lecturing on the wonders of learning a second language and the
joys of Spanish verbs. Brian and I turned our attention to her
lecture as we furiously tried to keep up with the torrent of
information she was giving us.

When she dismissed class, Brian
turned to me and asked what my next class was. We pulled out our
schedules and discovered that the only other class we had together
was P.E. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We did have the same blocks free
for lunch, though, and our next classes were on the same floor.

Brian turned to me and said, “Want
to walk together? That way we can both look for the damn rooms.”

He had that grin on his face again
and I found myself grinning back. “Sure, but if you get me
totally lost, you have to explain it to my teacher.”

He laughed. “Deal!”

We talked all the way to class, and
I felt totally comfortable with this guy. No small feat given the
fact that most of my previous interactions with football jocks
involved me getting beaten to a pulp. I found myself smiling
throughout the next two classes, and I actually looked forward to
lunch for the first time ever. I arrived in the cafeteria at lunch
time and spotted Brian right away. He was with a group of guys who
most certainly constituted half of the freshman football team. Given
my track record with football jocks, the prospect of sitting down for
lunch with these guys made my stomach clench. It felt a bit like I'd
be hanging a sign around my neck saying, ”I like getting the
crap beat out of me.” I was about to quietly slip out of the
cafeteria when Brian spotted me and waved me over. Before long I'd
been introduced to all of his friends. Much to my shock, however, no
one seemed to question the presence of the short skinny runner-guy in
their group. The guys I'd grown up with would have drop kicked me on
sight.

Just as I was starting to relax, a
guy named Tom leaned over. “Hey, weren't you at soccer
tryouts?” he asked.

“Yeah. I'm playing forward
this year, and I'm running on the cross country team.” I was
still waiting for someone to kick me out of the group, but instead he
smiled.

“Cool. I tried out, but
didn't make the team, so I'm playing football instead.”

“Football was your second
choice?” I couldn't figure out if this guy was for real.

“Well, yeah. I like soccer
better, but I'm just not fast enough. The soccer coach always picks
the small quick guys for the team – it's just how he likes the
team to play and I'm definitely not that. No way I could keep up with
the cross-country folks. Only place left for me would be keeper and I
suck in that position.”

I must have looked like someone had
just slapped me because Brian started laughing. “What's with
the look?”

“Sorry. At my last school
playing anything but football went over like a lead balloon.”

Brian looked at me for a second
with a serious look on his face. “Let me guess...St. Anne's?”
I nodded. “No offense Sam, but most of those kids are just
plain mean. A group of them always tries out for football every year,
and they always play dirty. My brothers told me about those guys when
they were here, but I didn't believe them until this summer. Most of
those guys get over it by their senior year. That had to be a crappy
place for you to be.”

I was shocked, and I looked around
the table at the other guys who were all nodding their heads in
agreement.

“Yeah, that's what you get
for living in the boonies. All that inbreeding,” Tom grinned at
me, and everyone at the table started laughing.

The rest of lunch was filled with
easy banter, and by the end I was feeling pretty good about these
guys. They all seemed genuinely nice, and it was the first ray of
hope that I'd had in a long time.

* * * * * * * *

Tuesday morning started with P.E.
Not exactly my favorite way to begin the day. P.E. teachers always
seemed to detest me on sight, and the locker rooms were always a
perfect opportunity for someone to “accidentally” knock
me around. I couldn't decide whether having Brian there would be a
blessing or a curse. On the one hand, having him around might ward
off any would be attackers. On the other hand, he might decide that I
wasn't enough of a jock to be friends with him. I got to the locker
room early, changed into my gym clothes, and was folding my uniform
when Brian arrived.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Nah,
I'm always cold. Comes with being one of those skinny runner types.”

“Okay, man. If you get hot
I've got an extra t-shirt you can borrow.”

I laughed. “I think I'll
pass. As big as you are your shirt would not only still come down to
my wrists, but it would come down to my knees as well. Not an
improvement! I'll be fine, really, but thanks though.”

“You're not that much smaller
than I am. You make me sound like some kind of giant oaf!”

“Well, you are a football
player...I thought the two were synonymous.”

“Oooh, big words. You can't
scare this football player with vocabulary words mister. Let's see
what you've got runner boy. I'll race you to the gym!” With
that he took off leaving me to catch up, which I did. Barely.

The P.E. teacher turned out to be
my English teacher and the wrestling coach. Mr. O'Leary seemed like a
decent guy. He cracked weird jokes and told wresting stories
throughout class. For the first time ever I got through a P.E. class
without hearing a single disparaging remark. Now I just needed to get
through the showers.

I discovered, much to my relief,
that the showers were semi-private. I raced through my shower and
into my uniform before most of the guys were even undressed. I was
tying my shoes when Brian meandered out of the shower with just his
boxers on. “Hey wait up for me and I'll walk with you to the
main building.”

“Sure thing.”

“Just give me a sec. I need
to check my blood sugar. You're not squeamish, are you?” Brian
said as he plopped down on the bench next to me.

“Not hardly. Blood sugar?”

“Yeah, I'm diabetic. Exercise
can really do a number on my blood sugar. It makes an excellent
excuse to munch on things in class.” He grinned up at me again
and we continued with idle chatter while he checked his blood sugar
and then climbed haphazardly into his uniform.

I couldn't suppress a grin when he
stood up.

“What?” he asked.

“You might want to cruise
past the mirrors before we leave.”

“Nah. I'll just look like I
was in a tornado five minutes from now anyway.” He grinned at
me and we set off for class. I couldn't help but marvel at his
nonchalance.

We agreed to meet up again for
lunch as we went to our separate classes. At lunch, the talk at the
table was about who everyone was taking to Homecoming. While none of
the guys were varsity, they were all expected to attend. Brian nudged
me with his elbow. “So, who are you asking?”

“Me? Probably no one. There's
no way in hell I'd take one of the girls from my old school, and I
don't know anyone else.”

“Man, you've gotta go. We're
all going to go in a big group so no one feels awkward if their date
turns out to be a total waste. You should come with us.”

“Sam, you've gotta get over
this inferiority thing. Football isn't the big deal here that it was
at your old school. Honestly, cross-country is probably a much bigger
deal. Besides, according to my sister you could ask just about any of
the girls on the cross-country team out and they'd go with you.”

I nearly choked. “What do you
mean according to your sister?!”

Brian laughed at me. “Mary's
on the team. You didn't tell me you made varsity your first year out.
My sister said, and I quote, 'He seems really nice even if he is
awfully quiet, and damn he's cute,' “ Brian said in a
falsetto while batting his eyes at me. He looked like he'd just been
possessed by Betty Boop. I could feel myself blushing a very deep
shade of crimson.

“There is no way your sister
said that. There's only one Mary on the team and I seriously doubt
she knows I'm alive. She certainly wouldn't say that.”

“Okay, maybe she didn't put
it quite like that, but she does know you're alive, and she did say
that you were both nice and cute.”

“From her it is," Brian
said, grinning at me. “So, you gonna ask her?” he asked
while he elbowed me and wagged his eyebrows salaciously at me.

“No way in hell am I asking a
junior to the dance. I'd be the butt of every joke for the next four
years!”

Brian studied me for a second. He
had this really serious look on his face that I couldn't quite figure
out. He looked me right in the eye and held my gaze. “Look man,
I'm not trying to tease you. Okay, I am teasing you, but Mary really
does like you. When I mentioned you last night she was really excited
that we were becoming friends. My sister and I are really close.
She'd already mentioned this new guy named Sam on the team a couple
of times before school even started. She really does like you. I'm
sorry I brought it up here.”

I felt like a total idiot for
overreacting. I also felt like he'd seen far more than I'd wanted him
to when he was looking in my eyes. How the hell could he read me so
well?

I broke his gaze and looked at my
shoes. “It's okay. I just overreacted.”

“Nah, it's okay. No one likes
to be teased. No pressure where my sister is concerned either. I'd
like to see her go with someone decent, and I think you two would get
along. If you aren't interested it's really no big deal.” Brian
was looking sincerely apologetic.

“I honestly never even
considered it,” I said, “She's too pretty to really be in
my league.”

“Modesty will get you
nowhere, mister. If you hurt her, though, I'll have to kick your ass.
But then again, I wouldn't have told you she was interested if I
thought you'd hurt her. Besides, if you ask her, then she can drive
us. No parents,” Brian said as he grinned at me, then rejoined
the discussion with the rest of the table regarding who the other
guys were going to ask to the dance.

I tuned them out and tried to sort
out what was going on. I found it hard to believe that Mary, one of
the prettiest girls in the school, would want to go anywhere with me.
Not only was she a junior, but from what I had seen she was also one
of the nicest and smartest girls in the school. I couldn't see any
reason why Brian would have lied to me though. All I could think was
that he must have misunderstood her somehow. That or he was trying to
pull a practical joke on me, but he'd just reassured me that he
wasn't. When the bell rang I was so lost in thought that I didn't
even hear it until Brian slapped my shoulder.

I returned to reality to find Brian
grinning down at me. “Have I created a monster? You aren't
busily mooning over Mary are you?”

I blushed again and tried to cover
it by slapping his shoulder. “Nope. I figure you'd kick my ass
if I mooned her.” Brian and I laughed and headed to class.

* * * * * * * *

That afternoon at cross-country
practice I found Mary. She was very pretty with shoulder length
auburn hair and blue eyes like Brian's. She was tiny, only 5'1”
and built like a runner. It was hard to believe that she and Brian
were siblings. I'd certainly noticed her before, but I'd been far too
shy to talk with her. I figured I didn't really have much to lose if
she blew me off, so I walked over to talk with her while we warmed
up. “So, I hear you've been spilling all of my secrets to your
brother.”

“Oh boy. What did Max say
now?” she said, sounding exasperated.

“Max?” I said,
confused.

“Yep. That's what we all call
Brian because he is always getting into something, like the kid from
“Where the Wild Things
Are”. I swear he was
born to make mischief.”

“Where the Wild Things
Are?”, I asked,
feeling even more confused.

She looked at me like I'd just
sprouted horns. “You didn't read it as a kid? How could you
miss that one?”

“Sorry. My parents didn't
really read to me much, and when I learned to read I pretty much
picked up whatever was around. That meant that I read whatever my
parents were reading.”

“You're kidding. No wonder
you're so serious. You have a new assignment. I'm bringing in a
children's book a day all season and you have to read them all,
starting with Where the Wild
Things Are.” I stared
at her for a second trying to figure out if she was actually going to
try to make me read a children's book a day. She was grinning at me
like the cat that had just eaten the canary. Apparently Brian wasn't
the only one with a wacky sense of humor in this family.

“You're serious, aren't you.”

“Absolutely.” She
grinned at me and I felt my heart do a flip-flop. I could feel a
blush creeping up my cheeks.

“Well, um, I guess we'd
better start our run,” I said as I turned to leave.

“See you after!” she
called after me.

I started my run and tried to
gather my wits about me. Running always cleared my head. By the time
I finished I thought I might just be able to face Mary again without
turning bright red-- maybe. I headed to the showers and quickly got
dressed. I wanted to catch the earliest bus possible or I wouldn't
get home until well after dark. That would irritate my parents, and I
didn't want them to decide I couldn't be on the team any more.

When I came out Brian was sitting
with his sister just outside the locker room. “Hey man!"
he said. "I was hoping you hadn't left yet. Want to come over
this weekend? I figured we could head to my house Friday after we're
both done with practice and maybe you could spend the night. Mary
said she'd drop you off at your house Saturday evening.”

I wasn't entirely sure what to
think of Brian's invitation. I hadn't exactly had social events
overflowing my calendar up to this point. I was getting the distinct
impression that Brian made friends with everyone he encountered
though, and I was pretty certain that he had declared me his new
favorite stray. Spending part of the weekend with him, and with Mary,
sounded pretty appealing when compared to my home life, so I figured
why not.

“See you tomorrow Mary,”
I said to his sister. “See you tomorrow Max,” I said to
him, and grinned at the shocked look on Brian's face.

“You are going to pay for
this big time Mary!” Brian picked her up and threw her over his
shoulder as she squealed and laughed.

“Really now. What are you
going to make me do little bro?”

“You're driving me and my
date for Homecoming,” Brian said while he spun Mary around. He
was looking pretty pleased with himself.

“Well you'd better talk your
buddy over there into going with me, then, because I'm not spending
the whole night watching you smooch with your date.” Mary
looked up at me and blushed, then looked back down at the ground. Had
I just been asked out by Mary?

“So how about it Sam. Do you
think you could be seen in public with her ugly ass?” Brian
said, still holding Mary up in the air.

“Her? Definitely. It's you
I'm not so sure about.” I smiled up at Mary and felt a blush
creeping up my face.

Brian put Mary down and turned to
me. “Good, now I just need to find a date myself.” He was
grinning like a little kid in a candy store, and was obviously pretty
happy with this little turn of events. “So, how about you
return the favor and get Jennifer in our Spanish class to ask me to
the dance?” he said to me.

“Sorry man, you're on your
own. I gotta catch this bus. See you tomorrow!” I ran to catch
the bus before it pulled away. I couldn't stop grinning all the way
home.

* * * * * * * *

The next day at practice Mary
pulled me aside. She looked pretty nervous. “You know Sam, you
don't have to go with me if you don't want to. I kind of put you on
the spot yesterday. I'm not sure what got into me,” she said
with a nervous laugh, “I'm not usually that forward.”

I could feel my heart sinking. Of
course she hadn't been serious about going to the dance with me. God,
I'm an idiot. “It's okay. I knew you wouldn't want to go with a
freshman,” I said trying not to sound upset.

Mary looked confused for a second,
then started giggling. “Brian was right. He said you wouldn't
think I was serious unless I told you flat out I wanted to go with
you. For the record, Sam, I would really like to go with you, but I
don't want you to feel obligated because I'm Brian's sister or
something.”

I was staring at her with what I'm
sure was a totally dumbstruck look. “Really? I mean, no, that's
okay.” I saw her face fall and realized that she thought I was
calling it off. “Wait, that didn't come out right. I mean I'd
really like to, er, would you go to Homecoming with me?” I'd
said it all in a rush so it took her a second to figure out what I'd
said.

Then she grinned up at me. “I'd
love to, Sam.”

* * * * * * * *

Homecoming rolled around faster
than I thought possible. I planned to stay at Brian's that weekend to
make it easier for everyone. Mary was indeed going to be our driver
for the night, and we were going to borrow their parents van and pick
up Tom and his date as well. That Friday we all went to an early
dinner together while waiting for the big game to start.

Tom and Brian had both asked
freshmen girls, and while both were nice enough, neither of them held
a candle to Mary. In the two weeks since we had all agreed to attend
the dance together, she and I had talked every day. We met every day
before cross-country practice, and I would wait for her to finish,
usually missing the early bus. My parents weren't happy about me
arriving home well past dark every night, but it didn't matter. I had
a permanent smile plastered on my face.

After dinner we headed over to the
football game and cheered ourselves hoarse. Our team lost miserably,
but we had fun anyway. Afterwards, we headed to Brian and Mary's
house to change for the dance. Tom and I got our suits on quickly,
then we helped Brian look presentable. Tom and I knew it wouldn't
last long, but at least Brian wouldn't look rumpled for a few
minutes. Once the three of us were all decked out in our finest we
settled in to wait for the girls. They emerged from Mary's bedroom an
hour later. An hour. Don't ask me how it took an hour but it was well
worth the wait. Mary was the last one out of the room, and she
positively took my breath away. She was pretty even under normal
circumstances, but that night she was stunning. I heard a gasp and
realized it was me. Brian looked over at me grinning.

“So you think my sister is
hot, huh?” He and Tom laughed at the look on my face. Mary came
over to stand next to me.

“Well, obviously he does
boys. He has good taste too.” She grinned at me as I tried to
stammer out a response.

“Come on, lets get the flower
thing over with and head to this dance.”

I found myself giving a silent
prayer of thanks to Brian's mom for suggesting a corsage that Mary
could wear on her wrist as I watched Tom wrestle with the pin on his
date's corsage. We were all concerned that he was going to stab her
to death before he managed to get it on her. Finally, in
exasperation, his date asked Mary to fasten it.

We took the obligatory pictures
with Brian's family and headed to the dance. The outside of the
ancient gymnasium had been decorated in the school colors of blue and
white. A local radio station had provided a DJ for the dance and the
music was filtering out into the night as we approached the entrance
to the gym. Mary was on my arm and I thought I'd died and gone to
heaven.

She and I danced almost every
dance, talking the whole time. I felt my nervousness melting away.
Talking with Mary was just easy. Hours flew by without either of us
noticing. Suddenly the DJ was announcing the final dance and she and
I were off to find the rest of our group. We all piled into the van
and headed back to Brian's house. I thought Brian and Tom would spend
the night teasing me about Mary, but we were all exhausted and fell
asleep as soon as we hit our sleeping bags.